The fenced-off empty lot next to Eichler Park in Beaverton may look about the same as it has for years. But for staff at Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District, the unassuming enclosure, formerly a gas station, just became a lot more promising.
After 20 years of sitting empty during soil and groundwater testing and cleanup, the site has received a Conditional No Further Action letter from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality.
This means a green light to develop the formerly contaminated site.
Hal Bergsma, director of planning with the parks district, said although the land use vision for Farmington Road includes high density residential and commercial development, that's not in the cards for the former brownfield site.
"We intend to expand the park," said Bergsma. "One of the improvements we're considering is a skate spot."
Due to its location adjacent to the existing park, the parks district targeted the empty lot for acquisition years ago. But, because of contaminants on site, acquiring the land was difficult.
Bergsma approached Metro's brownfields program for assistance.
"We started working with DEQ and Metro to assess the site before purchase," Bergsma said. "Metro's brownfields program provided funding for inventory work, digging test holes, establishing the conditions onsite. We factored all that in to negotiations with the property owner."
Metro's Brownfields Recycling Program provides technical and financial assistance to local jurisdictions, landowners and other stakeholders to reclaim land that is underutilized because of real or perceived environmental contamination.
In this case, the program contributed $92,000 from Environmental Protection Agency and Local Share grants for site assessment and cleanup planning. State funding awarded an additional $126,000 for cleanup.
The brownfields program prioritizes potential projects that are located in centers and along transit corridors throughout the region. Although Farmington Road is designated a corridor under Metro's 2040 Growth Concept, other conditions were also at play regarding Metro's involvement with the former Texaco site.
"This one was prioritized because it's going to be a park in what is hopefully going to be a more populated area," said Miranda Bateschell, who works with the brownfields program at Metro. "There were health concerns of it being a vapor intrusion to the kids who are already playing in the park."
Bergsma said Metro's help was instrumental in getting the necessary pieces in place to finalize the acquisition.
The parks and recreation department closed on the property in June 2011 and moved forward with plans to remediate the contamination.
In October 2012, an outside contractor conducted cleanup at the site that included excavation and removal of contaminated soil and groundwater. The contractor then prepared a Removal Action Report and submitted it to the Department of Environmental Quality last June for review.
In a No Further Action Determination letter dated Nov. 1, DEQ stated it "determined that current environmental conditions at the site do not pose a risk to human health or the environment, and therefore, the property meets the requirements (for issuance) of a… certificate of completion."
"It's great when any contaminated land can be reclaimed," said Metro Councilor Craig Dirksen, whose district includes Eichler Park. "But what's particularly exciting in this case is that a former brownfield site will now be able to provide valuable and much needed park land."
Bergsma said that, although the cleanup is a big step forward in Eichler Park's expansion, funding isn't lined up for the site's development.
"We're going through a process of developing a parks functional plan," Bergsma said. "Part of that will be identifying how we prioritize various needed park improvements through THPRD. Once we do that, we'll see where this project falls."